Charting New Waters
by acreativename
Summary: Set approx 20 years after ssn 10; Clark and Lois are in their mid-forties and are raising a willful, half-Kryptonian daughter. Also Lois is coming to terms with the fact that she is mortal and Clark isn't.
1. Chapter 1

**This chapter isn't really part of the story that's going to written but it provides all of the background info. The actual story centres more around the lives of Lois and Clark and their daughter around 20 years after season 10. Unfortunately I don't know much about the Superman mythology so all the info in this is based off Smallville. And I have absolutely no idea how old Lois Lane is supposed to be in relation to Clark, so to make things easy for myself, we'll say that in this fic she's the same age as him.**

**First chapter occurs from one to five years (approximate) after season 10. D'accord… ****chapitre un:**

The world was peaceful for once. For the past decade, it had seemed there was always some sort of threat; something beyond human. Alien invasions, supernatural threats; they could only be vanquished by someone that was a little more than human… or a lot more than human, one might say.

But now the world was quiet and the world was organized. It was devoid of the inhuman evil that had haunted it so long. Of course, no one said the world was perfect. Could the world ever be perfect and happy, or were people incapable of making that happen? Lois grimly suspected that latter. There were always villains in the world; bad people with malice in their hearts that needed to be stopped. But hey, the world wasn't on the verge of an apocalypse. That had to be a step up, didn't it?

Besides, the world had a hero now… well it really had several if you counted the Green Arrow, Supergirl, Aquaman and all the others. But one in particular stood out to world, and of course to Lois, but being his wife that was given. A few years ago Superman had come upon the scene, rising from the ashes of the elusive Blur. Lois was proud of him. She knew how big of a decision it was for him to finally show his face to the world, considering his adolescent fears of being named a freak, or only being seen as inhuman, not a person. Not an equal to human. She reflected; how, in her youth, would she have reacted if she found that Clark was an alien? She might try to incapacitate him without asking any questions or she might just run away. The word alien just seemed creepy. She had to admit that Clark had a valid reason for keeping his secret for so long.

But then again, when someone said alien, the first image that came to her mind wasn't Clark. It was ET, something reptilian looking maybe, or some creature from Star Wars. If she was confronted by one of these aliens, she might not be so accepting. She would probably be scared. Well, she wouldn't be scared by an Ewok; they were just too cute and fluffy. But some space reptile with sharp teeth? Scary. She wondered how the public would react if Clark didn't look so human… say he was your stereotypical alien. Somehow she doubted the public would be so accepting. Why were people so afraid of things that were different? It seemed like an instinctual human thought, almost: "You're different than me, therefore you're evil."

But before coming out as Superman, Clark had taken plenty of time convincing the public that he was a force for good and not evil. One day, he finally revealed to Lois his plan to come out to the public. She supported him, but (and she felt bad for thinking this) she didn't believe he would truly follow through with his plan. But subtle changes had slowly been happening to Clark, and she was starting to notice. He was happier. He was accepting himself as who he was, proud of being a Kryptonian yet never conceited. He blamed himself much less for the evils in the world, thank god. This attribute of Clark's was one Lois had always found particularly annoying. Clark seemed more confident, and Lois finally began to believe what he had told her. And then Clark's behaviour in public changed. He was still the same as he had always been in private with Lois but now, on dates, at the Daily Planet, anywhere in public, it seemed that Clark was channelling his inner nerd. He bought some glasses and developed a bumbling demeanour. Lois constantly made fun of him for this, but this only seemed to perfect his act.

Clark kept up his act, patiently, for two whole years, until everyone accepted him as the endearing yet bumbling reporter in love with the beautiful Lois Lane. No one on the inside of this act could say that Lois didn't play her part excellently as well, however. She gleefully pretended to look down on him, act like he was her inferior. Not in a snobby sort of way, of course. Lois couldn't do snobby; she just wasn't a snobby enough person. The way Lois acted made it seem like she had so much on her mind that Clark Kent was left behind, and so she ignored him. Lois secretly wanted someone to commend her on her acting. She rather felt like she deserved an Oscar.

When Clark finally felt that his new identity was accepted, he decided to unveil his new alias. For almost three years he had been looking at the outfit from his mother, wondering exactly when the right time to wear it was. After a long wait, the time had finally come. Lois originally thought that Clark's Superman outfit looked goofy and it was easy to see that Clark also shared in that sentiment at first. But there's a lot to be said about how admiration can cloud people's judgement. Everyone in Metropolis already knew and loved him as the hero that was the Blur, so when Superman appeared they didn't see a goofy suit, they saw a hero. Also the fact that he was hovering a few hundred feet above them all did look pretty impressive. He made his first few brilliant saves as an unmasked hero and the papers hailed him: "Superman, Metropolis's hero". _I could have come up with a more creative title_, Lois thought, but either way it was an inspiring headline, and she was proud of what Clark had accomplished.

And now the Metropolitans trusted him, loved him and relied on him. Lois knew that nearly every woman (and some men) in Metropolis had a not-so-secret infatuation with him, and she thought, with a little gloating pleasure, _he's all mine._ She grinned, remembering his proposal. The world had still been shrouded in darkness then, and Clark was still the Blur. He'd showered her in flower petals and said his speech. By the time Lois figured out what was happening he was already down on one knee. In retrospect it seemed kind of cheesy, but at the time it was extremely romantic, and it brought out one of those few moments when she felt girly. And this was rare. Lois, as a rule, was not girly. She was self-reliant and independent. She felt it was her duty to single-handedly overturn the disrespectful stereotypes of women, and any man that dared to demean her would get a swift kick in the groin. Damn, that was fun to do.

But she had to admit she had a feminine side that guiltily relished in these cheesy romantic moments. There was a long wait between Clark's proposal and their marriage, as Clark and the other heroes of the world were faced with a foe called Darkseid. This was a period of time in which the heroes of Metropolis were out of the confidence of the public. Times were darker then. Eventually, and not without great struggle, Darkseid was vanquished, and the darkness and suspicion that had arisen in that time relinquished their hold on Earth. Everything was lighter; everything was better. Everyone was able to rebuild their lives. Some changed in small ways, some changed in big ways. That was the time when Superman first showed himself in Clark's eyes. It was safe to say that the ways in which Clark changed were dramatic.

Clark and Lois's wedding came soon after. In order to keep up the façade they had created, their wedding was kept secret, and it was small. Oliver Queen rented out a hall and had it decorated like a fairy tale. Lois remembered how Clark had initially been so reluctant to have Oliver pay for so much of his wedding. He hated being in debt. Lois remembered Martha Kent telling her that Clark's protests reminded her painfully of her late husband; Clark really was his father's son. But, while Oliver was rich, Clark knew he was no Lex Luthor, and was finally convinced he wouldn't be put into Oliver's debt. Oliver was quite the smooth talker.

A small handful of guests attended the wedding. Oliver, Kara, all of the superheroes, Chloe, Martha Kent and Perry White. Perry didn't exactly know about Clark's secret, but he had proven himself to be a good ally nonetheless. Lois had always wondered if Perry would get suspicious, but for the time being, he seemed happily oblivious. Either way, it didn't seem like it would be a disaster if he found out who Clark was; he had Martha Kent to ground him. One person attending the wedding who certainly didn't know anything about Clark's secret was General Lane. There had been a lot of discussion on whether or not they should invite the General. In the past, he had not supported the actions of the Blur, meaning he opposed the very man Lois was marrying. However, he didn't know that Clark had been the Blur. And it was custom for the bride's father to walk her down the aisle. Lois had gotten the impression that Clark really didn't want the General to come. She supposed he had a reason, but it still upset her. He _was_ her father. Besides, her father had grown bitter after her mother's death, so she figured that walking his daughter down the aisle would be a way to make him happy again, if only for a few hours. Finally Clark gave in. The wedding was still magical, but the presence of the General meant that the guests had to be careful what they said. But of course, they were used to doing that anyway.

Clark and Lois left on a week-long honeymoon soon after. Perry gave them an excuse for their absence; the official story was that they were working as a team to investigate a story in Bolivia. Lois figured that her coworkers probably had a good long laugh about her being stuck working on a story with that bumbling reporter Clark Kent. But of course they didn't know the whole story.

The day they returned to Metropolis, Lois was extremely content. It had been a good week, to say the least. But the day after she returned, she noticed a few deep bruises blossoming on her arms. She swore. She didn't bruise easily, and now, of all times, she had to? For the next few days, she wore long-sleeved shirts and was careful not to brush up against anything for fear she would wince, and Clark would see her. He was good at catching little things like that and he, being Clark, assumed the worst.

But clearly she wasn't careful enough. Well, she supposed it was hardly her fault… On her second day back at the Daily Planet, a co-worker congratulated her for a byline on the front page of the newspaper. It was all perfectly horrible timing… Clark happened to walk into the room at that time and was looking right at Lois. Just at that moment, Lois's friend walked towards her, squeezed her arm in a friendly gesture and said "Congrats."

Lois winced, and her co-worker looked surprised and let go of her arm. "Oh, no, you didn't hurt me," Lois explained in a friendly voice, "I just have a bruise."

For a fraction of a second she made eye contact with Clark and saw his mouth tighten. Great. He was going to be _fun_ when she got home.

"I hurt you," he said, several hours later, staring sadly down at the floor of the Kent farmhouse.

Lois resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "No, Clark, please don't think that."

He continued to mope and Lois lost her patience.

"Seriously? Clark! Bruises! Teensy tiny bruises! And I thought we were done with this whole self-pity I-can't-be-around-people-without-hurting-them thing! Do you realize that, in fact, I married you for a reason? It's an amazing concept, isn't it?"

Clark looked up at her in surprise.

Lois continued, "Yeah, it's always fun to marry someone who doesn't want to have a relationship with you –"

"I never said that!"

"Then why don't you act like it?" Clark looked somewhat wounded at that. Lois assuaged, "well, I mean, you did… you have been a good boyfriend, and now husband. But just stop this stupid self-pity thing, ok? Because I'm sick of it."

Clark's expression indicated that the message had gotten through to him, although he did look a little sulky. Lois was sufficiently pissed off for the day, and took out her frustrations on the treadmill until her legs ached.

In a few days, all of the tension from their spat was gone, and they returned to living a happy life in secrecy. Lois and Clark lived like this for about two years until Lois started to want something more from the relationship. A sudden desire had come upon her and she wasn't sure where it came from or when it struck, but it was there, calling out to her, and she knew she had to address it. She was very hesitant about talking to Clark about it. She knew that Clark wanted this as much as she did, but she was unsure if he would allow it to happen. After Lois's admonishing he had become much less overprotective of her, but this might be asking too much.

Why did she suddenly watch this so much anyway? She had never wanted this before. She had never planned for this to happen to her. She felt like some cheesy 1950's housewife, striving to put together a perfect family. But the fact remained; Lois wanted that family. She felt like she'd never really had a true family before. After her mother died, her father grew bitter, and she grew rebellious. She was convinced, throughout her youth, that her father always loved her sister Lucy better and in turn she broke away from her family. As dysfunctional as the Luthors… well, not quite. But close.

Suddenly, though, Lois was feeling maternal, which was, and there is no other way to say this, kind of messed up. Lois didn't know how to deal with kids. She was always an awkward babysitter; she didn't know what kids liked or did and she didn't understand how to respond to them. But she wanted one now. _What on earth? _she thought. But the desire had hit her with power and suddenness akin to a train crash.

She finally screwed up the courage and talked to Clark about it. She saw it in his eyes; he wanted this too. But then a shadow came over his face.

"I don't know…"

"Well, would you consider it?" Lois probed.

"I would more than consider it, Lois." Clark confirmed her beliefs. "But I don't even know if it's possible… I mean, we're two different, well, _species_, to put it bluntly."

"No harm in trying. Lions and tigers can mate."

"Lions and tigers come from the same planet."

"But still –"

Clark didn't give in. "Even if we were to have a child, he or she would be half Kryptonian. Wouldn't that be kind of dangerous for you?"

Lois was stumped on that one. His point was valid.

"I'm sorry, Lois. I just don't see how it could work out."

But things did work out, in the end. A week after the discussion Clark bounded towards Lois with an ecstatic grin on his face. For a second he reminded Lois of a child who wanted praise for doing something good. She unknowingly hit the nail dead on (minus the child part). Lois was very confused when Clark kneeled down and took a ring out of his pocket. They were already married. What, he wanted a second wedding?

Clark grinned. "A blue Kryptonite ring for you, Madame."

Lois took the ring, an expression of dawning realization colouring her face, and Clark stood up. "I can't believe I never thought of this before!" he exclaimed. "It's so simple!"

Lois's smile mirrored Clark's. It would be a long night.

Nine months later, Lois was livid. She was in an absolute rage. Clark had tried to comfort her, but it was no use, because nothing he could do could make her happy right now. She wanted to this baby to get out of her stomach already. She was absolutely sick of being pregnant. She was sick of the maternity clothes and the stupid back pains and everything. She felt like throwing her head back and screaming at the top of her lungs, but she figured that might not be very well received in a public place. So when her water finally broke it was to a certain amount of relief.

As Clark rushed her to the hospital, a mix of emotions ran through her head. She was scared as hell, but also excited. She was excited for her baby. Clark, maintaining the traditional values of his parents, hadn't wanted to know the gender of the baby ahead of time. Lois was a bit annoyed with him over this, because she was a very impatient person. She just wanted to know if her baby was a boy or a girl. But she grudgingly complied with Clark's values, because it seemed like it was important to him. She thought about baby names. She had chosen a boy name and girl name. If the baby was a boy, his name would be Jeremy. If the baby was a girl –

Oh no. At that instant, Lois knew she was going into labour. She didn't even really sense what was happening around her anymore, it was all a blur. Clark was holding onto her hand… a nurse was telling her to push… it felt like she couldn't do it anymore…Clark squeezed her hand… keep pushing… And… after what seemed like hours, she heard a quiet crying. She was exhausted. Tears mutedly ran down Clark's face, and he smiled as he placed a tiny, soft body in her arms.

"It's a girl," he whispered.

"A girl," Lois responded softly. "My Julia."

**And the story starts... So how is it? Constructive criticism appreciated!**


	2. Chapter 2

**So… if you read this you will notice that I have written at several points: There is a space here x3, because I keep putting in spaces and something keeps happening to them. So does anyone know how to make that the line thing to show that I am moving from one topic to another?**

**Fourteen and a half years later…**

Julia awoke, bright and early, to the smell of waffles. She sat up in bed, a bit discombobulated as she always was this early in the morning, until she realized that today was her first day of high school. A strange feeling ran through her stomach. She couldn't tell whether it was from excitement or anxiety. Maybe both.

She got up to put on her housecoat, catching a glimpse of her reflection in the mirror near her bedroom door. She was definitely the daughter of Lois Lane and Clark Kent. Her hair was dark brown and had the slightest of waves, like her father, and it reached down to touch her shoulder blades. Also, like her father, her eyes were blue-green and serious. But every other part of her face belonged to her mother. Her nose, her ears, her mouth… even her facial shape was similar.

But she couldn't resist the smell of those waffles any longer, and bounded downstairs to greet the day. The sight that met her made her grin. It was a stereotypical morning scene of husband and wife, yet the roles were reversed. Her mother sat at the kitchen table, already dressed, slowly making her way through a bagel. Her eyes were glued to the newspaper on her left save the few moments when she looked up to take a sip of coffee. Her father was not yet in his work attire, though Julia knew that wasn't a problem since he could dress himself in a fraction of a second. He was standing at the kitchen counter, carefully pouring batter into a waffle iron. There were already a number of waffles on a plate to the side. Already at her place at the kitchen table there was a plate, a fork and knife, a bottle of maple syrup and glass of cold, white milk.

Mmm. Julia's eyes sparkled as she appeared in the kitchen. Both her parents looked up and smiled.

"Oh, first day of high school!" her mother gushed. "C'mere!" Julia found herself enfolded in a tight hug. "My baby's growing up…"

"Mom," Julia responded indignantly, pulling away, "I'm fourteen years old, that's hardly a baby. And besides, it's just high school. I mean it's not like I won't see all the same people that were in my eighth grade class anyway. It's not as big of a deal as everyone says." But the feelings in her stomach told her that it was, indeed, a big deal.

"I wouldn't say that," her father pitched in from the other side of the kitchen. "You're opening up a new chapter in your life. I was really excited when I started high school. That's why I decided to make you a good breakfast to build up your energy for the day. Waffle?"

"Ok." Julia grinned. She lifted up her plate and her father tossed two waffles with perfect accuracy right onto her plate. "Thank you!" She said brightly. Her family was so weird. Sometimes she loved it.

As she sat down to eat, her mother put her newspaper down again. "So…" she asked, "excited?"

Julia shrugged. "I dunno. Guess so," she said absently. But a nervous thought had struck her. She frowned, and paused before she spoke again. "Mom... what if… what if I do something weird? I mean, by accident."

She thought back to the times when she was little. As a child, she'd always been just a little stronger and a little faster than all of her friends. But not too much. Either way, her parents had kept her on a short leash so she couldn't accidentally hurt anyone. For that reason, she'd always been fairly shy around others. But that didn't mean she didn't lose her temper occasionally. It was second grade when she had first (unintentionally) flirted with disaster.

English, stupid English. She was a very intelligent girl and flew through all the math and science that came her way. But English? Short stories; they just weren't her thing. And being a perfectionist, she tried and tried to write something that sounded great and impressive but to no avail; she just didn't have a way with words. She got frustrated and violently kicked the leg of the desk in which she was sitting. The entire thing collapsed and she fell on the floor. She was lucky, then, because her teacher assumed that the desk had been poorly made and only needed the slightest bit of encouragement to fall apart. However, Julia still received a call home and an extra homework assignment. She still had a grudge against that teacher.

Her parents gave her a good talking to, and from then on, she resolved to be as careful as possible. But she was still a young girl, and things happened. The good thing about little kids, however, is that they have big imaginations. In other words, it's not out of the ordinary for a little kid to spin up a story about how his or her best friend has superpowers. There were a few times when Julia's family had to use this fact to their advantage.

Julia had gotten much better at hiding her powers. But she found it was hard to act normal sometimes, particularly when she developed a new power. She didn't want to relive those ten minutes in the seventh grade when all she'd seen were people's skeletons. X-ray vision was useful now, but at the time she'd been scared and confused. She'd burst into tears, and at the time, everyone thought she had anxiety problems.

But what if she slipped up now, in high school? It seemed like such an important time in a young person's life. It was like who she became in high school defined her. It meant the difference between being a leader or some nerdy loser. Maybe she was being overdramatic. Maybe high school wasn't even that important. But from her point of view standing on its threshold, it sure looked important.

Her face was tight with worry as she looked at her mother, and then to her father and back to her mother again. _What if I do something weird?_ Her words hung in the air for a long moment.

Her mother seemed at a loss for words. Julia supposed that was a given. She'd never had to deal with developing superpowers. But her father's eyebrows came together in a frown, and after appearing to contemplate his choice of words he spoke.

"Well…" he began slowly, "The truth is you can never really know exactly _what_ is going to happen. Spontaneity is part of life, whether you're human or… not. And you're not exactly a little girl anymore; you're old enough to take care of yourself. Besides, after all this time, our secret hasn't been blown yet, hasn't it? Just trust yourself. You can adapt. And your mother and I are always here for you if you need us."

Julia felt a bit mollified at his words, but they still didn't completely erase that nauseous feeling in her stomach. However, she did feel like some of the stress was lifted. "Ok."

"There, see, you'll be just fine," her mother said brightly.

Julia restrained from grinning. She loved her mother but she knew she wasn't the greatest at pep-talks. She was one of those all-action people, not one of those good-with-words people. Something she and her mother had in common. Her mother would simply add a short sentiment at the end of someone else's speech just to feel included.

"Well," her mother announced, "I should probably be off now, work's not going to wait for me."

"Do you want to me to take you?" her father offered. "It would be much faster."

"As _nice_ as that may be," her mother snapped, "I am perfectly capable of driving myself to Metropolis."

"Ok, ok, it was just an offer…"

Julia looked back and forth between her parents, frowning. She didn't like it when her parents bickered. They didn't really argued that often, but small disagreements between the two had suddenly seemed to be sprouting up more frequently.

"I should probably get dressed now," Julia said, wolfing down the remains of her breakfast. She wanted to escape the tension in the room.

She ran upstairs in a blur, literally, and started to get ready for school. She brushed her teeth and washed her face and put up her hair, and then she promptly spent a good half hour picking out the perfect outfit for her first day of high school.

There is a space here. There is a space here. There is a space here.

On her way to Metropolis, Lois, as usual, was stuck in a traffic jam. She let loose some of the worst swear words she could think of and honked her horn several times, but nothing she did seemed to help her cause. She should have just let Clark fly her over.

Lois didn't want to face the reason why she refused to have Clark bring her to Metropolis. It hurt her too much. But of course, those sorts of things had a tendency of bubbling up to the surface of her mind whether she wanted them to or not.

The truth was, she wanted her old life back. She wanted to be happy and carefree and young again. Of course, she loved her daughter. Her life as a mother was something she would never want to give up, because she simply loved Julia too much. But it seemed like everything else had gone downhill in the last fifteen years.

She didn't work with Clark at the Daily Planet anymore. She would have liked to. She liked working with Clark and she _loved_ pretending to look down on him. It really got her frustrations out, particularly when she was frustrated with him.

But it was inevitable that Clark would have to leave the Planet sooner or later, because the fact of the matter was that he just wasn't aging. Lois figured that he had stopped getting older at around thirty, or maybe even in his late twenties. She didn't notice it at first; in fact, she didn't really notice it at all for a few years. After all, many people looked almost the same at thirty-two as they did at thirty, so it wasn't really a hugely noticeable thing.

But when Clark reached thirty-five, she started to wonder. She looked at pictures of him from five years earlier and noticed that he hadn't seemed to change one bit. A few people at the Planet even commented on this to her, but of course it wasn't nearly as big of a deal to them because they didn't know Clark's secret. And it wasn't long, then, until Clark began to realize it too.

Clark knew then that his only option was to quit the Daily Planet and move out of Metropolis before people really started to notice his age. It was sad for both him and Lois, because it seemed like they were closing a happy chapter in their lives. But of course, every chapter has to end eventually.

So Lois and Clark and little four-year-old Julia relocated to the nearby Joyceville and settled into life in the suburbs. Lois continued to work for the Planet; she had learned to love journalism. Clark went out and got a degree in civil engineering (which Lois thought was a bit random) and settled himself at a company with a branch right in Joyceville. Of course, both Lois and Clark remained extremely familiar with the city, Lois working as a Daily Planet reporter and Clark being Metropolis's resident superhero. But it was still different, and Lois had to say that she preferred her life in Metropolis.

But it wasn't the move from Metropolis that saddened her the most; she had long since gotten over that. It was the fact that her youth was slipping away from her and she just didn't know how to react to it. Twenty years ago, she was in her twenties, and now she was in her forties. She could see the creases starting to form on her face; they were around her mouth and eyes and on her forehead. Wrinkles! In her twenties she would never have to worry about wrinkles. It seemed like when you were young, you thought you were immortal. You didn't have to worry about your age; you didn't have to face your mortality.

Lois thought, with a shudder of fear, the vicious enemy that awaited her about ten years into the future. Menopause. Menopause; she couldn't believe she was stressing over menopause. She always thought she was too young for this, but now it was becoming a reality.

She was a bit depressed to say the least. She honked at another car out of spite and let out a few swear words for good measure, but too soon she fell back in silent contemplation.

Lois turned her car as the slow highway came to a curve. Suddenly the sun was in a very annoying position in relation to her eyes and she reached up to pull down her visor. She glimpsed a picture she had placed there a few years back. The picture itself had been taken maybe five years ago. It was a picture of her, Clark and Julia enjoying the leaves on a crisp autumn day. They looked so happy. Lois supposed she was about forty then, or maybe thirty-nine. Somehow, her age hadn't really mattered that much to her then. It had still bothered her that she was getting old, she supposed, but not nearly as much as it had been recently.

But she noticed her age now, particularly in relation to Clark. Every woman went through these sorts of insecurities at her age, she knew, but most of these women did not have a husband who would be young forever. She knew Clark couldn't help it, but she almost felt as if he was mocking her, or rather, his Kryptonian-ness was mocking her humanity. She looked at the picture and felt a momentary rush of anger.

How could he just _be_ like that? His face was devoid of wrinkles; his hair was dark brown, never grey. And as much as he seemed human, as much as he actually believed he was human, he just wasn't. Lois hadn't really cared before, and although she still loved him now, his alien qualities were starting to become painfully obvious. The implicit message was, Clark was moving on and Lois just couldn't keep up. She was being left behind.

And that was why she hadn't wanted Clark to fly her to Metropolis. Yes, it would be faster and yes, it would be easier. But the truth was, when he flew or used his abilities at all, it just reminded her that he wasn't mortal and she was, and that just hurt too much.

There is a space here. There is a space here. There is a space here.

Julia waited nervously at the front entrance to the Joyceville High School. She had already arranged to meet her friend Gillian here so she wouldn't be alone as she walked into the new school. But Gillian wasn't here yet. She suddenly felt very anxious. What if Gillian didn't show up? What if she was sick or something and missed her first day of school? How would Julia survive her first day of high school alone? She was beginning to panic.

But then, Gillian appeared. Julia smiled and breathed a sigh of relief. She realized she had been needlessly freaking out.

"So, nervous?" her friend asked, looking all too nervous herself.

"No…" Julia lied. Her friend cocked her eyebrow. "Ok, yes. But, I dunno, it's just high school, isn't it?"

"Just high school? _Just_ high school? Julia, we're all _old_ now! We're high school students now!" Her face was flushed with excitement.

Julia had to admit that sounded cool. She'd said 'high school student' in her head before, and it didn't sound like much, but when someone else said it aloud, she suddenly felt very old.

They walked through the front doors of the school and entered the atrium. This place was _big_. She felt like she could have taken her house, multiplied it by twenty and crammed all of the copies into the school, and there would still be space left over. And her house was decent size as it was.

The school was three floors tall, and spanned a wide amount of space. The atrium was a wide area cut right through the middle of the building. There were no floors above the main part of the atrium; the ceiling looked about one hundred feet up. In fact, there wasn't even a ceiling above this wide area, but a huge window that let in light and brightened the scene below.

Mostly, however, the building ascended in three floors. The second and third floors encircled the atrium, peeking in at the going's-on in the main area through thick, glass windows. There were two main stairways that Julia could see; one at the entrance to the school and one near the back. The principal's office and student services (or guidance) were nestled comfortably into the side of the building at her left. Several benches lined the space in front of her. Three wide hallways led off from the atrium, but from her position, Julia couldn't see where they led. But was she ever curious to find out.

Gillian grabbed her arm and pulled her towards a crowd of students near the wall. "Come on! Let's find out what homerooms we're in!"

The crowd of students were all gathered around a long list of names. The list was typed out on several pieces of foolscap paper taped side by side on the wall. Beside each name were some numbers, and Julia deduced that the list contained the names of all the students in the school, and that the numbers indicated that student's homeroom class.

She carefully pushed her way through the crowd and searched for her name. _L… Labine… Laboissonnier (that's a mouthful)… ah, Lane Kent, Julia. _Beside her name was written: 315.

She glanced at Gillian, a few sheets over, her finger running down the 'R' sheet. She stopped, apparently having found her name, and smiled over at Julia. They both extricated themselves from the mob.

"What's your classroom?" Gillian asked excitedly.

"315, how about you?"

Gillian's face fell slightly. "I'm in 319." But then she smiled again. "But we're really close, anyway, so our lockers will probably be near each other. Isn't that great?"

Julia was saved from describing just how great it was as Gillian quickly launched into a new topic.

"Come on, let's go upstairs and find our homeroom classes so we don't have to search for them when the bell rings. It would suck to be late for class on the first day." And without allowing Julia to say one word, she grabbed onto her arm and whisked her up the staircase.

There is a space here. There is a space here. There is a space here.

Clark sat at his desk, wondering how Julia was coping on her first day of school. In many ways, he could relate to what she was going through. He knew how hard it was to get out and meet new people when you had such a huge secret to hide. And he knew that constantly having to lie bothered Julia as much as it had bothered him.

But he couldn't predict how she would react when a new power came. He recalled her reaction to X-ray vision being rather… strong. Julia was clever and relatively collected, but it always came as a shock when she experienced something so new and different. It shook her calm composure and sometimes made her act with less restraint than usual.

How would Julia's first day of high school be? He could only guess. He knew she would have to make a continuous effort to hide her powers, hide who she was, but by that point, he knew she was used to it. But while Clark knew what it was like to have inhuman abilities, he would never, ever know what it was like to be a teenage girl.

And this was why he was desperately happy that he had married Lois, and that he had raised a daughter with Lois and not by himself. Lois and Clark were the perfect team, Clark felt.

He'd always liked it when they were two reporters working together at the Daily Planet, and he was sad when that particular duo had been broken up. But they were a team in new ways now. They were a husband and wife, and a mother and father. Together, they helped their daughter as well as they could. Clark helped Julia adjust to her powers, and Lois helped Julia with all of that confusing teenage-girl stuff.

In the face of confusing teenage-girl stuff, all Clark could think was, thank God Lois was in his life.

But recently, Lois was starting to seem increasingly cold and distant. He didn't know why. He didn't recall any particular fight that would cause tension between them. Of course, they had little tiffs, but they'd always had little tiffs. They were very different personalities, so it was inevitable that sometimes their opinions would clash. But they only had small arguments that never amounted to something serious.

Now, although, their arguments were not increasing in size, they seemed to be increasing in number. He still couldn't figure out why. He loved Lois, and she loved him. He would never stop loving her, and she was one of the few people that he would sacrifice his own life for. He'd been in a relationship with Lois for a very long time now; was she sick of the relationship? What had happened to his wife?

He turned his attention to the radio to which he'd been listening. The tone of the broadcaster's quiet voice had suddenly changed; it was more urgent and serious. Apparently a bridge in Metropolis was collapsing.

_Well, that's my cue,_ thought Clark, and in less than a second he had disappeared from his chair.

There is a space here. There is a space here. There is a space here.

Julia walked laps around the third floor with Gillian. They had already both found their classes; now it was only a matter of time before the bell rang.

Julia was starting to feel more nervous as the seconds went by. Gillian wasn't in her homeroom; she'd have to cope on her own. She figured she already knew a few people in the high school who had gone to her middle school, but a lot of the students were new and had gone to different schools. She guessed that she would have a few friends from the eighth grade in each of her classes; she hadn't been friendless in middle school. She just wanted to make a good impression on the new people, was all. She had a blank slate with these students. A lot of people here knew nothing about her "anxiety attack" and wouldn't treat her accordingly. She could reinvent herself.

She fiddled with a plastic strap on her knapsack until it snapped. Then, with a jolt of her stomach, the bell finally rang. She said goodbye to Gillian and walked, with apprehension, towards the door adorned with a rectangular label boldly stating the number of her homeroom class: '315'.

**Gah, this is my first fanfic, I had so much difficulty figuring out how to upload this chapter. But it is here and I am happy. Finally.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapitre trois… why am I so obsessed with French? **

**PS. With this chapter, I am going to pretend that people don't yet know that Superman is an alien, they just think that he's a super-powered human or something like that. It helps add a bit of dramatic effect to the whole alien part of the plot, I think.**

Julia sat down at a desk near the middle of the class, next to a girl she didn't recognize. There weren't many people in the class yet; she supposed she'd been a little overeager getting there.

The rest of the class filtered in the next five or so minutes. A boy settled down into a seat right beside Julia. He turned to her and grinned.

"Hi," he said, "I'm Ivan."

Ivan. He looked… well there was no nicer way to put this, he looked like a nerd. He had zits and glasses and his voice just had that sound to it. However despite his appearance, his smile was nice and Julia returned his friendly gesture.

"Hi," she responded, somewhat shyly. "Julia."

"Julia. Nice name."

"Yeah." There was an awkward pause. Julia wasn't great with conversation; she didn't know what to say to start it back up again. She hated awkward moments. But then Ivan spoke up, and what he said somewhat shocked her.

"So… do you believe in aliens?"

"What?" Julia said sharply. She hadn't been expecting that one. She suddenly felt suspicious.

"Yeah, you know, like ET. Except not like ET, because he was a fictional alien. I mean like real aliens." He looked at her expectantly but she didn't speak, so he continued on. "I mean, seriously, there's intelligent life on earth. Consider how _huge_ the universe is and don't tell me it's not likely that there are other intelligent life forms out there."

He paused and looked at her again. She stared back. Once again he started to talk. "You know, I bet the aliens have come to earth before; it would make sense. I mean, think of all of the weird stuff that seems to go on in Metropolis. Superheroes and psycho mutants galore. And remember those two meteor showers that hit Smallville on the other side of Metropolis. What are the odds of _that_ happening? I'll tell you what happened. Aliens. Wouldn't a meteor shower be a perfect cover-up for a spaceship to land? I bet we're on the verge of an alien invasion." He seemed strangely excited by this prospect.

"Um…" Julia began, but suddenly a new voice cut into the conversation.

"Ivan, stop being such a nerd."

Julia turned to see who had spoken. It was the girl sitting beside her.

"Why don't you stop being stupid?" Ivan responded lamely.

"Wow, seriously?" the girl returned. "Nice comeback. But by talking about aliens, you're just alienating everyone else here, and quite frankly, that's not going to help you fit in at a new school."

Ivan turned away, looking a bit miffed.

The girl turned to Julia. "Hey," she said brightly, all traces of annoyance suddenly gone from her face. "I'm Kate. I'm new here, and so is my freaky brother."

Julia gave a weak smile, not knowing whether or not it would be cruel to laugh. She decided against it. "Um, I'm Julia." She launched herself into obligatory small talk. "So… where are you from?"

"Smallville," Kate responded. "The town of never-ending farmland. Not really too much different than Joyceville now, though. It's been growing in population and some of the bigger areas of farmland have been bought and developed. I really don't know why it's growing though, considering it seems to attract freak meteor showers. Well there's a quaint main street there, maybe that's it. People are sure stupid over quaint main streets."

"Yeah, I guess so," Julia agreed, smiling. "So… Smallville, huh? That's where my dad grew up. I've always wanted to go there, just, you know, to see where he lived as a teenager, but for some reason he doesn't want to bring me there."

"Huh, that's weird. But trust me; you're not really missing out on much. It's just a regular, boring old small town. There are plenty of places just like it all across the country."

"Yeah, I guess so… but I just, like, I don't know… the fact that my dad doesn't want me to go to Smallville just makes me want to go to Smallville even more, if you know what I mean."

"Totally." Kate gave a mischievous grin. "We're teenagers after all; defying parental authority is better than alcohol."

Julia smiled, a bit hesitantly.

At that moment, a voice came over the intercom directing students to rise for the national anthem. After the anthem was finished, the principal said a speech welcoming students to the school and then proceeded with other morning announcements.

As they sat back down in their seats, Julia turned back to Kate and tentatively spoke. "So… your brother…"

"Oh, him…" Kate rolled her eyes. "Don't mind him. He's a total nerd; he's completely obsessed with aliens. Yeah, ridiculous, right? He's been like that since the fourth grade, when he completely _insisted_ that his friend could walk through walls. I mean, you'd think he'd grow out of that sort of stuff, but no, he still insists … ok, wait so _first _of all, he _insists _that his friend can still walk through walls, and _second_ he says that the aliens did it to him. _Aliens?_ Jeez."

"Wow," Julia responded, wearing her best poker face. "He's a… an interesting person."

Kate snorted. "That's one way to put it."

Julia felt a bit relieved in a way. Whatever alien-related issues Ivan had, they didn't seem to be with her. She did bear in mind, though, that she'd probably have to be particularly careful around him. It seemed like he would be only too happy to jump to the conclusion that she was an alien… although technically speaking, she was only half-alien, but she doubted that would matter to Ivan. For the time, though, he was happily oblivious, and Julia planned to keep things that way.

Some of the things that Kate had said about Ivan concerned her a bit, however. That whole thing with a friend who could walk through walls. She'd heard of mutants before; she knew that was easily possible. And the meteor showers. It was chilling, the conclusion Ivan had made, because the truth was, he was completely right. The first meteor shower had brought her father, then only three years old, to Earth. And unlike Julia, her father wasn't half human.

The second meteor shower to hit Smallville had brought a pair of grown Kryptonians, both older than her father, to the planet. These aliens were a bit more, well, alien than her father had ever been, though. They didn't see the value in humanity and abused their powers to suit their needs. Julia was glad they were gone.

But Ivan was right; a spaceship had landed on Earth in both of these meteor showers. It was frightening how easily he made that guess. Of course, most people didn't believe in aliens, let alone considered the prospect of full-out alien invasions, Julia realized. She probably didn't have anything to worry about… But still…

"Ok, quiet down, everybody!" The conversation in the classroom slowly halted, and Julia looked up at her teacher. She was a woman who looked to be in her early thirties. Her height and build were both extraordinarily average and she had shoulder-length brown hair. "Ok!" She clasped her hands together and smiled. "Hello, my name is Ms. Wallace, and I'll be your grade nine math teacher for this semester. I just want to lay some rules down, ok? No cell phones in class, all right? You get two strikes; if I see it once, I want it put away, and if I see it again, you'll have to bring it down to the office. Are we clear on that? A few more rules…"

Ms. Wallace proceeded to list out of all of the rules for her classroom, and then she handed out a unit outline and went over it with the class. After that, she gave each student a sheet of paper with all of their classes for the year.

At this point, she assigned lockers. Julia's was thankfully right beside a window, so she had more room to move than those who had a locker right between two other lockers (which was most students in her class).

After this was done, Ms. Wallace gave them some Grade 8 review work. All in all, it was a fairly uneventful class, with the exception of her conversation with Ivan.

Second period was English, and Julia was happy to find Gillian in her class. She also saw Kate there, but this time, no Ivan. Strangely enough, her English teacher was Polish. **(Personal experience.) **Mrs. Wysocki. She would never be able to pronounce that name right; it was a lost cause.

After English, Julia, Gillian and Kate headed down to the cafeteria for lunchtime. Julia and Kate had packed lunches and patiently waited for Gillian to buy hers, but Julia was secretly itching to explore the school.

The caf itself was pretty large. It wasn't actually a real cafeteria; it was just a gym containing a whole bunch of tables on wheels. Julia supposed that these were put away after the lunch period was finished. There was a large window on one side of the caf/gym that looked out on the front of the school.

Gillian emerged from the line of people buying food.

"C'mon Gil," Julia said with a sparkle in her eye. "There're only forty minutes at lunchtime, let's go explore the school before third period comes." And she walked briskly away from the cafeteria with Gillian and Kate in tow.

Unfortunately, there was only so much they could explore, because a lot of the hallways were blocked off during lunchtime. This included all of the second and third floors. They did see some interesting stuff, though, so Julia wasn't completely disappointed. She found that the door to the auditorium was unlocked so she, Gillian and Kate peeked in.

It was big, there was no denying that. It was the size of a large movie theatre. This room alone was bigger than her house. There were three sections of seats clothed in red fabric, and curtains of the same colour hung loosely at the sides of the stage up front. Julia could only imagine standing up there, on that stage, in front of a crowded auditorium. She didn't have huge issues with stage fright, but she bet, put in this situation, that she would be absolutely paralyzed with fear.

Gillian and Kate seemed to be in just as much awe as she was. "I really wish we could go up on that stage," Gillian whispered. It was obvious why they couldn't. A light somewhere offstage cast a human-like shadow onto the stage floor and the girls suspected that it might be a teacher. They were all worried that if a teacher saw them they would get in trouble for being in the auditorium without asking permission.

"Come on," Julia said nervously, "we should probably leave now…"

They quietly exited out of the big front door out into the hallway. Julia wanted to explore even more but of course, just at that moment, the bell rang.

Julia headed back up to her locker to get together her books for third period. She had geography. She headed towards her class.

Once there, she found she recognized a few people from her first and second period classes. And once again – just her luck – she shared the class with Ivan. As soon as he walked into the class and saw her, he smiled, and sidled right over to sit in the seat next to him. Good grief. Julia was beginning to think that he liked her.

"Hi!" he said brightly. Then his voice lowered. "Just so you know… my sister likes to make fun of me. Sibling rivalry, you know… I'm not really that nerdy, she loves to over exaggerate."

Julia fought the urge to say, "Are you sure?" But she settled with saying, "Yeah, siblings do that."

"Anyway…" and he went off on another tangent.

Julia absently nodded along to what he was saying while actually darting glances around the classroom and at the door to see who she would spend the semester with. There were some nice people in the class; she was happy about that. Some not-so-nice, but she supposed they'd just ignore her. The next person to walk into the class was a boy that Julia didn't recognize, maybe he was from a different school or maybe he was new to town. But one thing she noticed was that he was very… good-looking. He was tall – 6 feet maybe – and he had definite muscles in his arms.

Suddenly, Julia began to feel very peculiar. Ivan broke off in his conversation and gave her a strange look. "Your eyes…"

"What?" Julia responded, not really paying attention. A headache was starting to build in her forehead, getting sharper as the seconds passed by. Her forehead felt as hot as a stovetop. _What on earth…?_ She squeezed her eyes shut. The pain began to subside a bit, but she still felt strange.

She walked briskly up to the front of her class, to where her teacher was; a man in his late twenties, she guessed.

"Sir, can I use the washroom?"

Her teacher frowned. "Well, class just started. Couldn't you have gone at lunch?"

"Um… female emergency," Julia responded. It was a sure-fire way to get out of class; particularly with male teachers. Her mother had told her about that.

"Oh." His eyes widened a bit. "Go, then, but don't be too long."

Julia nearly ran to the bathroom, although she found that once she got there, all of the pain had subsided.

The washroom was mercifully empty. Julia went over to mirror and stared at her anguished reflection. What the hell? What was happening to her? This had to be some sort of new power; she had never felt like that before. She thought back to when it happened; maybe she could figure out what had caused it.

She'd been talking to Ivan, or rather, Ivan had been talking to her… and then that guy walked in! That's when it happened! It had to do with him, probably. She thought back to that exact moment and thought about his face and arms and…

Her eyes widened as she gawked at her reflection. Her eyes had flashed an orange red. She didn't have much time to contemplate what had happened because the next moment, her reflection disappeared in a haze of red. In a panic, she looked back and forth, and to the ground, trying to find something to help her. In retrospect, that wasn't the wisest thing to do. But then it stopped as soon as it had come.

She blinked, and looked at what she had done. Fortunately, she hadn't looked at anything flammable. But that was the only good thing she could say.

Bold black marks obscured the mirror and floor. In the middle of these marks were deep gashes where she had actually melted material away.

Crap. She had vandalized the school on the first day. What was she going to do?

She looked around for anything she could use to clean up her mess. Hand dryers? No paper towel? Stupid school. Crap crap crap! What was she going to do?

She paused and listened to see if anyone was coming. She heard several footsteps within classrooms and on opposite ends of the floor, but nothing near her.

Think. She grabbed a roll of toilet paper, not even looking back when she accidentally ripped its holder right out of the cubicle wall. She soaked the roll in water then, in super speed, rubbed as much of the black soot off the mirror and floor as possible. A few seconds later, she stepped back to examine her handiwork.

It was much better, she could say that. It was still obvious that something had happened though; a deep gash ran down the mirror and onto the floor. It was lined with a bit of black that Julia, for the life of her, just couldn't get rid of. Nevertheless, it looked much less conspicuous.

At this point, even though it was against her better judgement, Julia couldn't think of anything else to do than leave the washroom and go back to class. She hated the thought of just leaving this here for someone else to deal with, but it seemed like her only other options were either exposing her abilities or skipping class. And she didn't want to do either of these things.

Besides, soon her teacher would start wondering where she was. She was panicked, and shaky, but she would have to suck it up. And not think about boys.

The wet toilet paper roll in her hand was coming apart; she'd scrubbed the mirror and floor vigorously. She threw it in the garbage, took a deep breath and finally walked out of the bathroom.

The walk back to her classroom seemed long. She took deep breaths and thought about school, and happy things and sad things and everything _but_ the opposite sex.

When she got to her class, she slipped into her seat as inconspicuously as possible. Ivan gave her a peculiar look but said nothing.

The teacher introduced himself to be Mr. Green, but that was all Julia really took in that class. She was concentrated at staring at the board in front of her and looking nowhere else. Finally, the class ended.

She looked at her schedule; her final class was gym. All girls, thank goodness. Julia's gym teacher was a young woman named Ms. Webb. She was nice and Julia immediately liked her. It was nice to have something to cheer her up after the day she'd been having.

Since it was the first day of school, no one in the class had brought gym clothes, so the day's class was essentially just for fun. Fortunately, it was early September, so most of the girls were wearing shorts rather than tight jeans. Those wearing skirts were a little less fortunate.

Ms. Webb decided they would play badminton. Nothing too stressful, plus (and Julia hated to admit this), this was a girls gym class, and there was a large number of girls that just didn't like to participate in gym class because they didn't want to get sweaty. Julia didn't get sweaty, but even if she did, she would still participate in the class. She was a fairly energetic person, so she loved running around. She always looked forward to gym class.

She and a few other girls helped Ms. Webb set up the nets and get out equipment for the class. Then she got in a group with three other and girls and began to play.

Julia and her partner dominated. Julia realized that she did have a bit of an advantage; her senses were sharper than the other girls' and she could always tell exactly where the birdie was going to go. But… she was competitive so she tried anyway. She grudgingly missed the birdie a few times, just to seem more normal.

After the class was done, she felt happy, and much less stressed out than she had felt during third period. That's what exercise did; that's why she loved it.

But as she made her way home, her happiness began to wear and she began to remember her troubles. Dammit, why did that have to happen today? She knew what that power was; she'd seen her father use it before. Heat vision. It might be cool, once she learned how to use it. But now, she just felt like her Kryptonian side was trying to ruin her life.

She had some schoolwork to do when she got home so, for now, she pushed thoughts about the day out of her head until she was done her homework. It didn't take her long to finish her homework, though; she was usually pretty quick at that, plus she didn't have very much on her first day. That meant she fell into silent contemplation for the rest of the afternoon. Her parents both came home at around 5:00. Dinner was at 6:30, and it was only at this point that Julia decided she wanted to come downstairs. She realized she'd been holing herself up in her bedroom all afternoon.

As she, her mother and her father sat down at the kitchen table to eat dinner, her father asked, "So, how was your first day at school?"

Julia thought about the question. "Um… it was interesting…"

Her mother looked at her, a bit concerned. Her father raised his eyebrows slightly. "Interesting? How?"

"Um, well… I think I got a new power today…"

"Which one?"

"Uh..." Julia paused. She thought back to her day, her encounter with heat vision; that portion had been traumatizing, to say the least. She unintentionally thought back to that boy in her class. And then…

Everything was a haze of red again. It stopped quickly though, and when it did, she found that she was looking at a metal cookie sheet. She looked up. Her father was holding the sheet. He'd reacted quickly enough so that she didn't set anything on fire.

"I guess you know what power now," Julia said quietly.

For a moment, her father smiled. "Yes, I'd say I do," he said in an amused voice. But then he looked concerned again. "So what exactly happened today?" It was clear in his voice that he was worried she had used his powers in front of her classmates.

Julie quashed his fears. "Don't worry; I didn't use my powers in front of anyone."

Her father looked relieved.

"But… some other stuff happened…" And Julia launched into her story. At the end, her throat tightened a bit as she realized, once again, the huge mess she had made.

"What am I going to do?" Her voice sounded constricted. She looked expectantly up at her parents; they always seemed to know what to do. Her mother and father looked at each other.

"Well," her father said slowly, "I don't know how much we can do about the bathroom… but we _can_ make sure that you get control over your new power."

"Right now?"

Her mother smiled. "Not right now; it's dinner time. You need nourishment to function properly, you know." And she served Julia some chicken.

After dinner, Julia's father took her out to a remote field and planted a scarecrow in the ground. "Now, this is exactly what my father did when I first got heat vision. Just think about what you were thinking about when it first happened, and stare at the scarecrow. I'll give you some… privacy…" he finished off awkwardly. He super-sped about a quarter of a kilometre away.

Julia turned to face the scarecrow and glared at it like it was some foe. It didn't ignite. She took her father's advice; she thought about the time when it had first happened, then on command, the scarecrow burst into flames. Hormones, those were causing this? Good grief, that was awkward. But now that she had a full grasp on what triggered her heat vision, she found she was able to control it better.

This time, she focused not only on the opposite sex, but exactly what her eyes did when they sent out heat vision. Slowly she memorized the motions, until she didn't even have to think about boys anymore.

Then she thought about boys, without trying to light things on fire. There was a bit there still; she felt her forehead grow hot, but her eyes expelled no heat. She was getting there.

She put out the fire on the scarecrow and sped back to her father. "I think I've got it," she said excitedly, and her father smiled at her. They super-sped back home together.

"You know," her father said as they got back home, "you didn't make nearly as much of a mess as I did when I first got heat vision."

"Really?" This seemed strange to Julia; her father always seemed so collected.

"Yup. First I lit a projector screen in my school on fire; everyone in the school was evacuated because of that. And later it was even worse, when I basically destroyed one of the walls in my friend's coffeehouse. You're not the only one that makes these sort of mistakes you know. Sure, we've both got to be careful because we have abilities that we can't reveal to most people, but nobody is perfect. And what happened could have been a lot worse."

"I guess so."

Her father continued. "You just have a good sleep tonight. You'll be fine in the morning."

"Ok. And… thanks, Dad," Julia said sincerely.

He smiled at her, then gave her a hug.

**

* * *

**

Ivan was in his bedroom, absently turning over a rock in his hand. He had quite an interesting rock collection; over time he had found lots of different types of meteor rock around Smallville.

But what he was most concerned with now was the girl he had met today, Julia. She had seemed nice, and pretty normal. It seemed like people with strange powers were pretty much restricted to Smallville. But he was starting to wonder about Julia.

Maybe it was a trick of the light, he wasn't sure, but… he could have _sworn_ he saw her eyes flash a reddish orange for a fraction of a second. Of course, maybe he was just trying to create something that wasn't there, but he didn't think so. Lately, a lot of his hunches had turned out to be true.

Yes, there was definitely something strange about that girl, something different, and he would find out what it was.

He hoped she was an alien.

**duh duh duuuuuuuuuuh!**


End file.
